More time w/Tennys...and Tuli!

Christena and Nate arrived on Monday afternoon and we spent the day showing them the sites of our daily lives.  The pictures with families are when we visited families we have been working with--the Garcia and Ramirez families.  Notice that even when Nathan knelt down, Sister Garcia is wa-a-a-y  shorter than him!  Christena was chillin in the apartment--pretty necessary in the heat of Chiquimula.  We visitied CUNORI and showed them my classroom.  Nathan was full of answers for all of my questions. :)  The campus is deserted for Semana Santa.

Tuesday we went to Quirigua and say ruins and stelae.  It rained as we arrived and was cool for our visit.  It was way cool and fascinating.  The trees there are huge--Spencer couldn't compete!   Quirigua dates to about 400 AD and is located in a proposed site for the Land of Nephi (occupied by Lamanites).


We stayed on the shores of Lake Itzabal--the largest lake in Guatemala.  Denny's Beach Resort is only available by boat.  It was a great place--but it was hard to get straight answers to some of our question/requests.  For instance we asked for cards and we received a candle--but it was all good because it was our light on our outdoor picnic table.


Wednesday we took a launcha (boat) down the lake to the Rio Dulce--which drains the lake into the Atlantic Ocean.  We toured the Castle of San Felipe--it was a fascinating place.  It didn't look very big as the boat arrived--but the inside was filled with labryinths and was much larger than we thought.  We really enjoyed it.  Rio Dulce was a bustling town with a great (modern) swimming beach on one side of the castle and rocks where the native women were doing their laundry in the river on the other side of the castle.  This country is one filled with contrasts.  Later that day we hiked up the hill trying to get a panoramic view--but we gave up.  Foilage was thick, the mountain was steep and I was tired!

Thursday we returned to Chiquimula and loafed (and took care of exchanging money.  Friday we went to Guatemala City.  We went to the temple and hung out in that area.  In the afternoon, Tuli took us as close as they could to the old parts of the city so we could see historical sites, but the many processions for Good Friday kept us from getting too close.  We had dinner at her home and met all of her family.  It was such a fun evening.  We then shared a room at the Hotel Princess and parted company at 5:00 AM.  Now we have to get back to being missionaries.